Lucknow, Sep 3 - The Uttar Pradesh government Thursday charged the central government with trying to put 'stumbling blocks' in the path of Chief Minister Mayawati's dream project - the Rs.550 crore Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Park in Noida.

Addressing a press conference here Thursday evening, state Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta said: 'It is strange that the union environment ministry is trying to put stumbling blocks in the path of the project after it had already given its clearance.'

According to Gupta, 'the union environment ministry submitted its report on the project to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), constituted by the Supreme Court under former union environment secretary P.V. Jayakrishna, on Aug 24 itself.'

He wondered why the CEC sat over the report all these days and on Sep 2, the environment ministry shot off a fresh letter to the Uttar Pradesh government and the CEC that was allegedly aimed at scuttling the project, he alleged.